(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

As before, not all that long ago, Ray leads the way up to his room. The door opens to a room decorated in blue and brown and the occasional bit of silver. The carpet is dark blue, the bedspread a lighter one (it's a bed for two people, clearly); the desk is wooden and brown and stacked with papers. And there are the bookshelves- wire things, silver wire, stacked with reference volumes and the occasional novel and quite a few slim, very neat cases.

"That's the video disc collection over there," Ray says, pointing towards the cases. "The books are mostly reference works, not fiction. Those papers tacked to the wall over there are the blueprints and deck plans for a Firefly class interstellar freighter- I'm very proud of those. That's my crystal-growing rig in the corner, which I mostly use these days for turning silicates and water into synthetic opals for paying my Bar bill..."

Comments

[gone_byebye]

Ray pauses the DVD.

"It's not supposed to be entertaining, this part," Ray says. "It's supposed to show that they're not kidding. That the Empire genuinely is evil. The Empire wants to maintain power and sustain its own existence even at the cost of uninvolved, unknowing human life. This kind of atrocity is the kind of act it takes to get someone who previously had no grudge against them to decide for himself that he won't let their evil stand. It takes a lot to make someone leave the only life they've ever known and pit themselves against something as massive and oppressive as the Empire. They have to have a reason." Ray nods at the screen. "That's the reason."

He shakes his head slightly. "She's stronger than she looks," he says, "and Vader doesn't go through with the whole spectrum of interrogation. He has another technique in mind to get the information out of her. I assure you, she lives."

[fathers-cleric.livejournal.com]

Ray's words fill Preston with a...strange new feeling that replaces the cold fist of Rage and hatred in his chest.

Hope?

I could do it by god...
The evil's comitted in the state's name. Mary's face swam up before him, pure and innocent, alive yes but dead. Dead to his world, never to see their collective universe again and...

Surprised, Jurgen's visage swims before his eyes.
that's why you're a godsend to us Preston. You're the only person who can get through Father's Security. Without you we've lost everything.

He looks to Ray, it's a look of confusion mixed with fear, and maybe a little nervousness.

without you-we're doomed.

"Is it...hard for them?" He gestures at the figures on the screen, "Will it be hard for them?"

Yes. Preston can't make it through Star wars.

[gone_byebye]

Ray looks at the screen. "It's hard," Ray admits. "And they learn things along the way that they never even imagined. But-"

He remembers something he thought, the last time Romana was away this long. The phrase turns over a couple of times in his head before he actually says it.

"Nothing worth having is ever done easily."